It is desirable for the production of a medical implant, with as high a level of automation as possible for high efficiency, nevertheless to achieve the best possible adjustment to the individual conditions of the anatomy of the relevant patient, which a priori challenges complete automation of the manufacturing process. The desire for a patient-specific anatomical adaptation thus applies here to different implants such as bone implants, an intervertebral disk replacement or cartilage structures for plastic or reconstructive surgery.
Particularly with an implant which, on account of an interaction, for instance as a result of movements, with one or a number of adjacent tissue structures is exposed to a constant stress, a detailed patient-specific adjustment of the implant to the surrounding tissue can prevent wear of the implant due to the stress. Similarly, unwanted reactions by the implant to the tissue structures involved in the interaction can also be reduced here, which helps with preventing inflammations, degeneration, sclerosis and physical wear responses of the tissue structures as a result of the implant.
WO 2004/110309 discloses a method, which, for the manufacture of an implant, first records three-dimensional tomographic image data of the body region for which the implant is provided, and on the basis of this image data of the body region creates a manufacturing model of the implant. The implant is then produced on the basis of the manufacturing model created based on the tomographic image data. WO 2014/036551 discloses a method for the patient-specific embodiment of an implant, which uses three-dimensional tomographic image data in particular to determine two-dimensional contact surfaces of a bone implant with the bone for which the implant is intended.
However, with the cited methods the image data is generally only recorded with one modality, in other words for instance using computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance tomography (MRT), and a manufacturing model of the implant is then generated directly by way of this image data generated by one modality. In the generation of the manufacturing model, this then results in substantially only the anatomical structures of the relevant body region which are particularly effectively resolved by the modality used, in other words bone structures in CT or soft tissue structures in MRT, being taken into account.
Information relating to any damage to the structures which are less effectively resolved by the modality used in each case is therefore not actually available for the generation of the manufacturing model. Moreover, as a result of the static nature of the image data, possible anatomical changes to the relevant body region (for instance as a result of movements), which could affect the implant, are not taken into account during the adjustment of the implant, and nor is the stress on the implant that may be produced by such anatomical changes.